Medicaid-Receiving Companies Object to the Senate Bill

Posted on 26 June 2017 by eehines

The Senate is proposing an overhaul of Obamacare and an improvement to the health coverage providing industry, and one of those improvements is a rollback of the Obamacare expansion of Medicaid and an eventual capping of Federal funds transfers to the States’ Medicaid programs. There are objections to this.

The primary objections are from insurers and hospitals, et al., who get a significant fraction of their income from the guarantees of Medicaid payments; they don’t want to have to compete in the open market. They prefer the supposed safety of that guaranteed income, paltry though it is, especially compared to the income available from a free market, and they don’t care what that “safety” costs those who must pay for it.

This is a preview of Medicaid-Receiving Companies Object to the Senate Bill. Read the full post (276 words, estimated 1:06 mins reading time)

Obstructionism

Posted on 23 June 2017 by eehines

…for the sake of obstructionism. And now the Progressive-Democrats in the Senate are getting blatant about it. They don’t want to help reform the health care coverage disaster of the last eight years, so to block Republican and Conservative efforts at reform, these Progressive-Democrats have decided to block everything in the Senate. Here’s Senator Chris Murphy (D, CT) o the overall attitude:

What more could we do—hold Republican Senators by the arms to stop them from getting to the chamber? I think we’ll use every tool at our disposal.

This is a preview of Obstructionism. Read the full post (249 words, estimated 1:0 mins reading time)

General Reform

Posted on 9 June 2017 by eehines

25% of us don’t see doctors because that costs too much.

32% of older millennials (is there such a thing? Gad) skip the doctor. 13% of Americans don’t have any health coverage plan at all—paying the penalty is more valuable to them. Half of us don’t think we’ll have affordable health insurance much less Obamacare’s health coverage welfare.

This, together with today’s other post, just illustrates the fact that no single part of our economy—or of our Federal government—can effectively be treated in isolation: not Obamacare alone, not Federal spending alone (especially not by “cutting” through reducing the rate of growth in spending), not taxing alone, not debt handling alone.

This is a preview of General Reform. Read the full post (165 words, estimated 40 secs reading time)

Losing Health Coverage

Posted on 9 June 2017 by eehines

The CBO and Progressive-Democrats in Congress loudly claim that millions will lose their health coverage plans under Republican plans to repeal and replace Obamacare.

What the Progressive-Democrats are carefully ignoring (the CBO not so much; they weren’t tasked with comparing the Republican plans and Obamacare) are the real millions that already are losing or are about to lose their health coverage plans because Obamacare is collapsing now.

The nation’s second largest health insurance company, Anthem, will extract itself from the majority of the ObamaCare market in the state of Ohio by 2018, the company announced Tuesday, raising questions about the future of its exchange participation.

This is a preview of Losing Health Coverage. Read the full post (226 words, estimated 54 secs reading time)

Medicaid Transfers

Posted on 31 May 2017 by eehines

It’s well understood that Medicaid badly wants reform. My own view is to give it back to the States by reducing Federal fund transfers to them until the transfers are zero, which also would eliminate Federal strings jerking the States to do everything the same way, the Federal way.

There are lots of paths to that end, and there are a number of other reforms that would help the situation at least a little. The House plan for repeal and replace of Obamacare, the first step of which was the American Health Care Act, has one such step, the repeal of Obamacare’s Medicaid expansion.

This is a preview of Medicaid Transfers. Read the full post (371 words, estimated 1:29 mins reading time)

Medicaid Cuts?

Posted on 18 May 2017 by eehines

Some conservative Republican Senators are looking to cut Federal transfers to the States earmarked for those States’ Medicaid programs. Others are concerned.

[T]he [conservative Senate Republicans’] Medicaid plan could affect many more people and shift significant costs onto hospitals and states.

This is a preview of Medicaid Cuts?. Read the full post (419 words, estimated 1:41 mins reading time)

Going Soft

Posted on 12 May 2017 by eehines

Senate pseudo-Republicans are balking at one good item that was contained the House-passed American Health Care Act: repeal of Obamacare’s trillion dollars’ worth of taxes. These guys actually don’t see the value of that repeal. Senator Susan Collins (R, ME) is typical:

I don’t see how you can repeal all of the pay-fors…and still meet the goal of providing health-insurance coverage for people who truly need assistance[.]

Aside from the false premise of needing Federal government “pay-fors” as a default position, rather than a last result, the Lady from Maine and her fellows plainly either don’t understand free market principles, or they have no confidence in free markets.

This is a preview of Going Soft. Read the full post (358 words, estimated 1:26 mins reading time)

Foolishness

Posted on 21 April 2017 by eehines

James Capretta and Lanhee Chen of American Enterprise Institute and the Hoover Institution, respectively, have a piece in a recent Wall Street Journal edition that talks about how to “nudge” uninsured Americans into getting health coverage plans. It’s impressive in its…foolishness…(I’m being polite).

Congress can help these Americans and many others get insurance by enrolling them in no-premium, no-obligation plans from which they could withdraw if they wanted to.

No. Not only no, Hell no. No squared. We’ve enough Big Government intruding into our private lives, arrogantly presuming to make our private decisions for us, without adding this to the steaming pile.

This is a preview of Foolishness. Read the full post (334 words, estimated 1:20 mins reading time)

Obamacare

Posted on 11 April 2017 by eehines

As The Wall Street Journal rightly pointed out, regarding the failed Obamacare repeal and replacement effort and the failing renewed discussions between the House Republican Conference and the Freedom Caucus of No,

The fury…suggests that some Freedom Caucus opposition is more cynical than sincere. Do its members want to appear to negotiate in good faith but insist on changes that centrists can’t accept, so they can then accuse centrists of killing the reform revival?

And

…perhaps there’s still hope for health-care reform. But first Republicans have to decide if they can accept progress that is short of perfection. If they can’t, then they’ll blow their best, and maybe only, shot at repealing and replacing a failing entitlement.

This is a preview of Obamacare. Read the full post (227 words, estimated 54 secs reading time)

Continued Veterans Administration Failure

Posted on 3 April 2017 by eehines

Dr Dale Klein is, formally, on the Veterans Administration payroll—to the tune of a $250,000/yr salary—but he’s not employed by them, and so his pain management skills are actively denied our veterans who would benefit from them. Klein blew the whistle on his proximate employer’s—Southeast Missouri John J Pershing VA facility—secret waiting lists and wait time manipulation practices. Now he’s shunned by his employers and banished to a room by himself where he’s denied access to his patients and patients are denied access to him.

This is a preview of Continued Veterans Administration Failure. Read the full post (186 words, estimated 45 secs reading time)

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